Diversifying Into Personal And Home Loans Will Strengthen Future Prospects

Key Takeaways

• Diversification into non-gold loans enhances Muthoot Finance's earnings potential, with strong growth observed in personal and home loans.
  
• Improved marketing and online platforms have driven substantial new customer acquisition, boosting revenue and growth prospects.
  
• Rising NPAs, competitive pricing pressures, and regulatory uncertainties could impact Muthoot Finance's revenue, profit margins, and overall financial stability.

Catalysts

A non-banking financing company, primarily engages in the provision of gold loan in India.

• The management has revised its guidance for gold loan growth from 15% to over 25%, driven by strong economic indicators and increased demand for secured lending as unsecured loans become scarce, which is expected to drive revenue growth.
  
• There has been noticeable growth in the non-gold loan portfolio, including personal loans and home loans, which strengthens Muthoot Finance as a diversified financial services provider, enhancing future earnings potential.
  
• With a huge new customer acquisition in recent quarters facilitated by enhanced marketing and online platforms, there is likely to be an increase in customer base and subsequent revenue from these new customers.
  
• The company has successfully expanded its gold loan disbursements, achieving the highest ever disbursement in the half-year. This indicates robust growth potential and a healthy pipeline that can positively impact revenue.
  
• Ongoing efforts to diversify revenues beyond gold loans, with home loans showing a 55% year-on-year growth, offer significant opportunities for sustaining growth and improving net margins.

Muthoot Finance Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

• Analysts are assuming Muthoot Finance's revenue will grow by 11.2% annually over the next 3 years.
• Analysts assume that profit margins will increase from 45.6% today to 52.5% in 3 years time.
• Analysts expect earnings to reach ₹74.1 billion (and earnings per share of ₹186.0) by about December 2027, up from ₹46.8 billion today.
• In order for the above numbers to justify the analysts price target, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 17.2x on those 2027 earnings, down from 17.7x today. This future PE is greater than the current PE for the IN Consumer Finance industry at 12.6x.
• Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to decline by 0.27% per year for the next 3 years.
• To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 15.99%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Muthoot Finance Future Earnings Per Share Growth

Risks

• Increased competition from other gold loan companies and banks may lead to pricing pressures, potentially impacting Muthoot Finance's revenue and profit margins.
  
• High reliance on gold loans exposes the company to risks related to gold price fluctuations, which could affect loan disbursements and collections, impacting net income.
  
• Rising NPAs in both gold and non-gold loan books indicate potential credit risk, which may lead to higher provisioning and affect net earnings.
  
• Uncertainty in regulatory landscape, especially regarding personal loans to existing customers, could force changes in business practices, affecting revenue and operational efficiency.
  
• Growth in non-gold loans, especially personal and SME loans, may not adequately diversify risk given their current scale compared to gold loans, impacting overall financial stability and earnings.

Valuation

• The analysts have a consensus price target of ₹2053.38 for Muthoot Finance based on their expectations of its future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors. However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of ₹2450.0, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just ₹1550.0.
• In order for you to agree with the analyst's consensus, you'd need to believe that by 2027, revenues will be ₹141.0 billion, earnings will come to ₹74.1 billion, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 17.2x, assuming you use a discount rate of 16.0%.
• Given the current share price of ₹2064.5, the analyst's price target of ₹2053.38 is 0.5% lower. The relatively low difference between the current share price and the analyst consensus price target indicates that they believe on average, the company is fairly priced.
• We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.